Generations publishes six new genealogy textbooks for kids. Parents, teachers, and genealogical societies looking for a how-to genealogy textbook for elementary through high school-aged students need to look no further. In Branching Out, a new series available from Generations, author and professional genealogist Jennifer Holik provides parents and educators with the tools they need to teach genealogical research skills to children and teens.

Through thirty fun and educational lessons, students will learn the foundations of genealogy and how to begin research on a level that they can understand and enjoy. Each lesson contains a clearly defined goal, all necessary vocabulary, additional reading assignments, and lesson and homework assignments to extend understanding of the concept.

The Branching Out series of books begins with six paperback textbooks which are also available as a PDF or PowerPoint download. The PowerPoint files, which were created with the visual and hands-on learner in mind, contain the same information as the textbooks with a few fun and interactive extras.

The Branching Out: Genealogy Lessons for Adults will be released in April with additional books for families, genealogical societies, and educators to be published later in 2012.

The books are available on CreateSpace in paperback form at the links provided. The PDF and PowerPoint files are available at the Generations Store at: http://www.e-junkie.com/generations

If you live in the Chicagoland area, you can meet Jennifer and purchase books at the Fountaindale Public Library’s Author Fair on Saturday, April 14, 2012. For more information visit the Generations Blog.

As the 1940 Census approaches, it seems like everyone is gearing up and counting down the days, hours, and minutes until the release. Are you counting down? Are you ready for the release? Have you taken some time recently to go back through your family’s information to make sure you are prepared?

Take an hour (or more) to go back through your documents and notes. Reviewing our research notes, plans, and records, from time to time, gives us a new perspective. We see facts with fresh eyes and often pick up on details we missed before or that didn’t seem to apply. How often have you gone back to an ancestor’s records and said to yourself, “wow I can’t believe I missed that detail when I first looked at this!” I think all of us have done that at some point.

You have about 18 days left to prepare. So what are you waiting for? Pull out those paper records, look at your digital records, examine your family tree and pull all that together in your Sort Your Story software. Let us know if you found something important you missed before in the comments below.